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Tech companies hope to profit from airport delays

November 15, 2010 | 11:45
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Combine pent-up demand to travel and one of the busiest travel seasons of the year and the result is airport traffic gridlock.

During the upcoming Thanksgiving holiday, Los Angeles International Airport will be the nation's second busiest airport, according to a ranking by the Orbitz travel website. The rankings were based on ticket sales through Orbitz for flights between Nov. 23 and Nov. 29.

Two technology companies, NCR Corp. of Duluth, Ga., and MOD Systems of Seattle, have teamed up to take advantage of long airport delays.

NCR Corp. and MOD Systems have installed electronic kiosks at 17 U.S. airports, including LAX, where travelers can buy or rent digital movies that are uploaded to digital memory cards to play on laptop computers. The companies completed the first kiosk installations this summer.

The Download2Go kiosks are located inside InMotion Entertainment and Soundbalance stores. Movie rental prices are $3.99, with purchase prices ranging from $12.99 to $19.99.

Customers can either upload the movies into their own memory card or can buy a card at the location. The rented movies erase themselves within 30 days.